Day 5 Friday May 10, afternoon in Santa Fe Part 4: Art – General

I have long admired the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe having seen exhibits of her work in Madison, Georgia, @ 1983 and more recently in Indianapolis. I had really looked forward to visiting the O’Keefe Museum here, but unfortunately they were hanging a new exhibit and the museum was closed to the public. I was able to see some of her works at the New Mexico Museum of Art, especially her “Red Hills with the Perdernal”:

The main gallery in the museum posed the question of “What is Art in New Mexico?” and featured a wide variety from Native American pieces, western paintings and a section on spiritual art. Two items not usually found in an art collection: a sculpture of rocket components designed by Robert Goddard that reflect the aspirations of an industrial society; the original photograph of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon from the Manhattan Project at Los  Alamos NM, July 16, 1945. Dominating as entire wall, “this frighteningly foreboding, deceptively simple, and hauntingly beautiful image documents the most important single event in the 14,00 years of human activity in New Mexico history … Welcome to the contradiction of the twenty-first century.”

Photo takes up an entire wall; Very Powerful

On the spiritual side, one painting explores the stereotyping of religious icons by Ray Martin Abeyta @ 2002. While the original painting depicts two icons,  I was taken by the eyes of the figure on the left:

A very unique piece combines sculpture and art with a likeness of a car front seat and dashboard replete with saints on the dashboard, the Blessed Virgin Mary on the stick shift and a death skeleton shown in the rear view mirror. Through this work entitled Chima Altar, Bertram’s Cruise, @ 2002, artist Luis Tapia reminds us that death is never far behind.

Elizabeth's rules for the road:

Put your head down and don't ride the clutch;

Pay the toll, put the top down and drive!